Understanding how Google indexes your website

If you've built a website, you want users to be able to find it. How do you get that done?
The first step is to get Google to index the website so that when users search for relevant keywords, the site will appear in the results. Zonder to be indexed by Google, most users won't even be able to find your website.
In this article, we explain what indexing means and how it is related to SEO.

What does indexing mean?

Indexing is the process of making your website visible in search engine results. The term "indexing" comes from the way printed books are organised.
When you "index" something, you add it to a catalogue or index of information so that you can easily find it later. In terms of SEO, indexing means that Google has included your website in its catalogue of websites.

How does Google index your website?

There are two main ways Google indexes a website:

• Robots scan the website and turn it into a digital version. The robot downloads and indexes all content, including all images, the blog posts and the website's navigation system. This process is called "crawl". The robot then takes this data and stores it in a database for Google to access
• People will also manually review your website to determine its suitability for inclusion in the Google index. This is called "indexing". The robots crawl your website at different intervals, depending on the size of the site. For most websites, this process will take place within a few hours or a few days. You can track the progress of website robots in Google Search Console.

How do you know if Google has indexed your website?

While the robots crawl the website, you can track the progress of the process using Google Search Console. You can also see if your site has been indexed by typing "site:" followed by the website address in Google's search bar. If the site appears, it means Google has started the indexing process of your website. If you don't see your site in the search results, it could mean that the indexing process hasn't started yet. Or, it could mean that Google has decided not to include the site in their index.
There are a couple of reasons why this can happen: a website has not been published long enough for Google to find/crawl it, or the site is not accessible to Google. At SEO website migrations we sometimes see that it takes a long time for new pages to be indexed.

What can you do yourself?

There are a few things you can do yourself to make sure Google indexes your website. First, make sure your site has good backlinks. This will help Google find your site more easily.
Next, you need to make sure your website is mobile-friendly. Google recently announced that they will increase the use of page speed as a ranking factor. Moreover, they will prioritise websites that are responsive.

Read more here: Why is my website not findable on Google

Want to know more?

Looking for targeted SEO advice? Contact our SEO specialists, or check out the SEO services that we offer. Wondering what we can do for you? Then do a live Live SEO analysis and get instant insight into how your site is doing, or request an immediate SEO audit to.